Part 1 of my essay, “Pagan ritual as an encounter with depth”, is now up at Humanistic Paganism. In Part 1 I discuss the following question: “When the purpose of ritual is to listen to the unconscious, how can we consciously create ritual?” Then in Part 2, which will be posted next week, I answer the question, “How do you maintain connection to the unconscious after ritual is created?” Read more
I’ve been thinking about grace and humility lately. Last Sunday in the Spirit Circle discussion group at my local UU congregation, we were talking about who to credit/blame for the good/bad in our lives. The Christian in our group shared his belief that, whenever his life goes wrong, he knows he has done something wrong, and whenever something good happens, he believes it is God’s blessing. He actually referred to the “Footprints” poem. (I think I rolled my eyes involuntarily.)... Read more
Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again — “The Sound of Silence”, Simon and Garfunkel Let me preface this by saying that I have never suffered from long term depression, depression that lasted years — unless you count the years of misery that preceded my leaving the religion of my birth. Okay, yeah, I should probably count that. Since then, I have experienced long periods of depression in the winter and shorter bouts of depression... Read more
Last month, Jason Pitzl-Waters posted this link at the Wild Hunt, but it was a little lost in the link roundup. I think it is an excellent example of how paganism can thrive in an urban environment. Apparently it’s not just Pagans who take advantage of the Manhattan solstice, or as it is otherwise called, “Manhattanhenge”. Apparently the streets in Manhattan are aligned 30 degrees off the east west axis. Twice a year (not on the solstice), the sun sets... Read more
I recently came across this review of Kimberley Christine Patton’s book, Religion of the Gods; Ritual, Paradox, and Reflexivity (2009). In her book, Patton takes up the phenomenon of Classical depictions of the gods pouring libations and participating in sacrifices. The cultic action of the gods which is depicted most frequently is libations, but it is not limited to libations. There are images of deities sprinkling incense on altars, and even suggestions of gods participating in animal sacrifice. And in... Read more
Below is part of the transcript of the Rachel Maddow show from last Friday, July 6, 2012. The story is about an Alabama man accused of “desecrating a venerable object”. What interests me is that the “venerable object” in this case is a pair of live oak trees on the campus of Auburn University. I share it here because it is a rare instance where our legal system recognizes the sacrality of an other-than-human life. The trees are still called... Read more
Spoiler Alert: The following post contains movie spoilers. If you have not seen Liam Neeson’s The Grey and you plan to, then don’t read this yet. A few weeks ago, I watched the movie, The Grey, starring Liam Neeson. Neeson is one of may favorite “man’s man” actors. I’ve loved many of the roles he played, but The Grey was something special. Neeson plays Ottway, a hunter hired by an Alaskan oil company to kill wolves that threaten its workers. ... Read more
Here’s my nightly practice with my kids: Now I lay me down to sleep, And float into God’s/Goddess’ dreamy deep. For my life my thanks I give. To love this world, for this I live. When I wake in the morning light, May Goddess be with me and guide my sight. This is my variation on the classic 18th century children’s prayer. I use “God” with my son, because that is what he prefers, and Goddess with my daughter, because... Read more
Today is the date of the death of Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor, in 363 CE. Like many of the cultural elites of his time, Julian was a philosophical pagan, viewing the pagan gods as allegorical. He was also a student Neoplatonic theurgy. Julian encouraged the restoration of paganism as the state religion, at the expense of Christianity, which had been adopted by his uncle Constantine. He restored pagan temples confiscated by Constantine and withdrew the privileges of... Read more
A week ago Sunday, in our Unitarian Sunday morning spirituality discussion group, we talked about what the Buddhist in our group called “now-ism”, a form of mindfulness, which is a kind of pseudo-Buddhism advocated by Eckhart Tolle and others. We also talked about gurus and the need for spiritual teachers. It was a good discussion. But something jumped out at me during the discussion. The Buddhist in the group (we’ll call him “B”) kept saying that we need to let... Read more
The Allergic Pagan
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